>> good morning, i'm stephanie sy, it's august 23. deliberations are underway in the military trial of major nidal hasan. he killed 13 people in 2009. acting as his own attorney, he did not call a single witness or make a closing argument. >> mounting reaction as the civil war in syria escalates. russia is calling for investigators to investigate the chemical attack. >> san francisco mayor bob filner expected to resign in disgrace today. by the settlement deal is fueling a new controversy.

♪ theme >> we're following some breaking news out of lebanon right now. lebanese state media says at least 12 people have been killed in two explosions in the northern part of the country. the blast happened in tripoli on the syrian border. these are the first pictures from the explosion scene. one of the bombs exploded as people were coming out of a mosque after friday prayers. 25 people have reportedly been injured. we will continue to bring you details of this attack as they become available. >> the fate of admitted fort hood shooter major nidal hassan is in the hands of a jury. a panel of officers began deliberating on thursday after hassan passed on his final chance to address the jury. he did not offer closing argument.

he could get the death penalty for shooting and killing 14 fellow soldiers in 2009. aljazeera is live in fort hood, texas. height de, given that hassan has basically put forward no defense and confessed to the today, only one gite would make punishment. there must be an aggravated factor, multiple killings

unanimous on all of those findings. >> thank you, heidi. san diego's embattled mayor bob filner could step down today. filner has reportedly agreed to resign as part of a deal to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit. filner's lawyers issued a statement confirming that a settlement had been reached but declined to reveal details of the terms. 17 women accused him of inappropriate behavior. attorney gloria allred represents one of the accusers. >> i would like to see a resignation without conditions and without the taxpayers being forced to make a gift of public funds to him in order for him to resign. >> earlier, we spoke with our stephanie stanton who said it is just a matter of procedure. >> the city council will meet in closed session and are expected to approve that resolution at

which point bob filner is expected to formally step down. we did see the mayor here today at city hall. he did leave at 5:30 this evening, carrying what looked to be a small box of belongings as he got into his car and sped away. >> this morning, egypt's ousted former leader mubarak is under arrest in a military hospital, the day after being released from prison. an egyptian court ordered him freed. he was held for two years. his release flamed sentiments among anti coop protestors, still upset by the removal of morsi. mubarak will stand trial for accusations of killing protesters two years ago. >> international outrage gross over an alleged chemical attack in syria. moments ago, it was announced that it is believed that it was

carried out by forces. russia is calling for the regime to allow inspectors to investigate the claim. opposition leaders say hundreds of civilians died in wednesday's assault outside damascus. they claim some medics who treated the victims died from secondary exposure. the sirian government denies these accusations. the attack has drawn renewed attention to the conflict. hundreds of thousands of syrians have fled in recent weeks, many now living in refugee camps. today, the adjustment announced more than 1 million children have been forced to flee that country. we are going to talk about the rapidly deteriorating refugee crisis in just a second, but first, let's bring in a senior fellow at the academy of american scientist charles

blair. you can see that the international pressure is growing yet we still don't have conclusive evidence this was a chemical attack. we've seen a lot of pictures come out of that site. you've seen them. is an investigation into chemical weapons use warranted at this time, in your opinion? >> certainly, at a minimum, the u.n. team in syria right now should be allowed to conduct the three investigations it was charged to do. the notion that it's going to get into the newest area, i think is unlikely, although the russians have made overtures now, but we don't know how conditional they are. the most important thing to remember about all of this is no matter what they find anywhere and no matter what age sent it is, they will neve be ail to prove who delivered the agent. >> that's true. >> and there are many reasons -- >> i want to say the state department here has said that

they do not believe the opposition has the capability of carry out chemical weapons. the opposition claims that medics who treated victims in the hospital have died, that there was secondary effect. we aren't able to confirm that. if that is true, what does that tellle you from a chemical weapons standpoint? >> i would say that regardless of how we perceive things, it's how it's perceived internationally as far as doubt whether or not a chemical attack occurred. in terms of the secondary exposure to the star run to the first responders and the people in the hospital. its absence led me and others to think there was no sarin. now that we're beginning to see that, it tells us lessons we learned with the tokyo subway

was affected and first responders and ambulance drivers and medics were affected by the sarin, so it's very significant. >> charles blair, thank you so much for your expertise and joining us. >> we turn to the other grim milestone, 1 million, 1 million syrian children refugees, and here to talk about that is sarah with unicef. where do these children go? >> it's a shame on awful us, but mostly a shame on these poor children who are now in all the neighboring countries. this is not a crisis jen gulfing one country, but an entire region. some are going as far south as egypt. and its all the neighboring countries around syria, and we're seeing this have a huge burden on the host communities in all of those neighboring countries, jordan, lebanon, iraq and turkey and egypt.

>> i understand you and your colleagues have seen these children, talked to these kids. i think we actually have drawings that the children have produced. that's something that trauma victims, especially children, tend to be able to express the trauma in drawings. it's really striking to me to see fighter yet here, a lot of blood. are these children completely traumatized? are they ok? >> no, they're not ok. they are seeing things that no child should ever see. this is now three years into this crisis and it's the biggest humanitarian crisis the world is seeing and has dealt with in history. it's 1 million children, which is norm mouse and also the parents and families. we are seeing 2 million children displaced. >> what about those children, is there any hope reaching those 2 million within syria that are displaced. >> unicef is inside syria and has been before and during and

we'll remain to do what we can under extraordinary difficult circumstances. we have a fundraising appeal with our sister agencies for $3 billion, only 40% has been reached. going back to the drawings and what the children have seen, if this gives us some sign of hope when they go through counseling and to school and get a sense of normality in their lives, going to school every day, that routine is enormously important. when they deal with this and have the counseling, they come out of it drawing happy pictures, pictures with flowers and pictures of hope. >> that is hopeful indeed, sarah crowe, thank you for joining us. >> the wildfire burning near yosemite national park has more than tripled in size. it is on the edge of the park. the approaching fire covers 84 square miles and estimated to be just 2% contained. melissa chan is there.

>> what's called the rim fire tripled in size in less than 24 hours, licking closing to the incident command center in the mountains, the base for firefighters and other teams. >> it's not burning into the park yet, but it is moving to the east toward the park. yosemite is an iconic park. the fire team here is doing their utmost to keep it out of the park. >> for now, yosemite remains open, but only a small part of the fire has been contained. >> the fire jumped the highway. this is a remote and mountainous part of california and one of many wildfires happening across the united states simultaneously. >> the government announced a p.l. five situation, preparedness level high, something not seen since 2008.

it means resources are stretched. teams move from fire to fire. many firefighters are working 24 hour shifts. despite the size of this fire, there's been minimal loss to property so far. a few buildings destroyed early on, but none damaged in the last couple days. >> we're just a strike team from sacramento and there are a number of homes that have residents in them. we're just going through the area, checking it out. >> at least every decade, we have a major fire up in this area, and i've been through several and been evacuated. we did all right before. there are so many houses and so many trees all in one small area, that if it got in here, i'm afraid that would be it. >> more help continues to arrive, but it's one tough

battle, and no one knows how long the fight will take before the flames subside. >> that was melissa chan reporting just outside yosemite national park. the southern part of the park does remain open to visitors for now. >> i'm meteorologist nicole mitchell. hope you are off to a great friday. let's get to the west where we were talking about those fires. we have a lot of monsoon moisture in the area. that means we have enough for occasionally some showers, sometimes downpours. you do want to watch for that. occasionally that brings flooding rises, but certainly beneficial when the rain makes it to the ground. drier skies you can see that for california. toward the northwest, moisture making it here, too, but not all of that makes it to the ground. because of risk with lightning, almost all of washington, oregon

and really almost the whole state of idaho under red flag fire warnings. not only because the winds will gust, driving the fires along, but because the lightning is a big concern today for possibly sparking new fires, given that the ground is just so dry. now as beget to the weekend, because we did make it to friday, of course, we are going to see the heat return to the midwest. the front that just passed through has cooled things down into the northeast, so a comfortable 80 degrees in new york. as we get into sunday, remember that heat i was talking about? going back from the 80's into the 90's in minnesota. that is going to be a hot one. the front that went through is continuing to push across, so drier humidity as we head into the northeast. the southeast has dried out significantly, as well. the moisture in this area is

mostly going to be off the coastline. there is a little bit of a disturbance there. you can see that monsoon heading toward the southwest. not too many concerns in terms of flooding in the southeast. midwest will be the one place we'll watch for possible thunderstorms, as well. back to you. >> nicole, thank you. people are heading to washington to celebrate the 50th affairs of martin luther king, jr.'s i have a dream speech. young we'll hear from youngsters who want to keep the dream alive. >> the wife of bo is called to testify against her husband.

with an autographed jersey, and obama shared a few praise. >> coach shula retired with more wins than any coach in history. each time that record has been challenged, team after team has fallin short. >> michael eaves joins us to talk more about that. the president was having a lot >> celebrations for the 50t 50th anniversary of the march on washington kick off tomorrow in the nation's capitol. a rally retracing the 1963 route to the national mall will take place. wednesday, president obama will speak on the steps of the

lincoln memorial where martin luther king delivered his i have a dream speech. >> i have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. i have a dream today. >> the march is recognized as the touch stone for both the 1964 civil rights act and the 1965 voting rights act. >> robert ray is in tallahassee traveling with a group who has a different motivation for heading to washington this weekend. what is driving the people on that bus you're on? >> indeed, there are hundreds of people from around the country on thousands of buses making their way to washington this weekend. the folks we talked to overnight are from southern university. they left baton rouge at 2:00 a.m., and are coming to

make a stop to honor martin luther king and here are sights and sounds as they make their way here to florida. [ laughter ] >> i'm looking forward to being around the older generation and getting firsthand experience on people that actually went through it, you know. i want to meet some of these people. i want to walk those steps. >> let us bow our heads in prayer. >> father, we thank you for all these bulletsings. amen. >> amen. >> we just hope that the people, that some of the people in washington, d.c. really, really hear us. >> we were actually thinking we were making some strides until trayvon martin's trial. how many of you had an

opportunity to see that? did you think the verdict was fair? >> no. >> no. >> hopefully dr. king's dream will continue to materialize. ♪ we shall overcome someday >> an excited group as you can see and hear. they left overnight from baton rouge. we are told that they should be here within the next hour to tallahassee where they will have lunch, talk about their mission to honor more tin luther king, jr. we had my crew spending time on the bus later the this afternoon, where we will be reporting live. >> that's inspiring to see those young kids heading to d.c. >> the dream, 50 years later, catch our complete coverage

starting tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern time. >> a chinese court called disgraced politician bo sheili's wife. bo is charged with bribery and abuse of power. we have more from outside the court in china. >> if day one of this case was dominated by his extraordinarily ve hement defense against the charges, day two, the britishman's death triggered the entire scandal. in testimony from her, she said that her son felt threatened by

b.o. the police can chief in the city where b.o. was secretary gave testimony, saying that he was unhappy with hayward over a property she had putterly obtained illegally. we heard from a french cashing text associated in that deal, saying he demanded 1.4 british pounds in compensation for his work that he felt had gone unpaid. that sets the scene for the killing of hayward. bo said he was aware that there was talk about the villa in france, but he gave no approval for it to be bought. he said in essence, his wife's testimony is not to be believed.

>> still ahead, a new voter i.d. law in texas. why attorney general erik holder is fighting mad bit and ready to challenge its legality in court. >> ryan braun admits to using performance enhancing drugs. i'll have his apology and more, coming up in sports.

>> here's the latest on the twin explosions in lebanon. at least 13 people have been killed after a bomb blast near the syrian border. this is the scene of the explosions. one of the bombs exploded as people were coming out of a mosque. fifty people have reportedly been injured. >> the justice department is challenging the voter i.d. law in texas. attorney general erik holder says the law violates the voting rights act, saying the law was

adopted with the express purpose of making it harder for non-english speakers and racial mines to vote. >> there's a new twist in major league baseball's performance enhancing drug saga. we have more of that in sports. >> since ryan braun first became publicly linked to performance enhancing drug almost two years ago, he has vehemently, often aggressively proclaimed in sense. now accepting a suspension, he is singing a different tune. he has admitted to taking an unspecified cream and lozenge as he attempted to return from an injury. he's apologizing to sample collector, the person in charge of the first test that exposed braun in 2011. braun had accused him of being anti semitic and biased because he was a cubs fan. in his statement, braun said:

>> a grand jury in massachusetts indicted exnew england patriots tightent hernandez with killing 27-year-old oudin lloyd, along with assorted weapons counts. lloyd was dating the sister of hernandez' girlfriend. hernandez pleaded not guilty to murder and gun charges in june and is being held without bail. police have yet to find a murder weapon. hernandez' attorneys are

confident they can clear their clients name, saying the case is circumstantial. >> dodgers pitcher took his pitching to the top of the fourth inning. kershaw singles, puig makes his way home. kershaw gets the ground ball, which gets him the double play. in the bottom of the sixth, it was the same story. 4-3 double play. kershaw 1. e.r.a. former closer brian wilson pitched a scoreless night, l.a. beats the marlins 6-0. >> rain in the bronx delayed yankees-blue jays. davis appears to catch wells

drooping liner, bobbles, then throws to kawasaki who tags everybody. the umpires rule davis trapped the ball. the yankees take the lead on a play that the crew chief later admit was a blown call. yankees have the bases stuffed in the sixth. there is no controversy about the two-run single. yankees win their fifth in a row and are three and a half games out of a wildcard spot. that is your look at morning sports. >> just breaking news out of north and south korea, the rival nations have agreed to lowrie unions of war-separated families for the first time in three years. this could represent another thawing in the relations between the two koreas. the joint industrial complex will be eroped. that will do it for this edition

of aljazeera news. ally veshi is next with "real money."